Sport, Cultural Imperialism and Colonial Response in the British Empire

Bureaucratic or military coercion were not the only reasons Britain was able to hold on to its vast imperial empire for as long as it did. Cultural power - ideas, beliefs, rules and conventions concerning social behaviours - carried throughout the empire by the British also contributed to the British ability to control. Sport was used to transfer dominant British beliefs as to social behaviour, standards, relations and conformity. The wide-ranging influence of sport was consolidated through organization and ceremony, patterns of participation and exclusion, competition against both the imperial power and other colonial states, and the strong centralization of authority in England. Crucial to this effect was the fact that sport gained a reputation as an egalitarian and apolitical agency which alone transcended the normal sectional divisions of the colonial social order.